Rethinking BioDiesel

Rumble rumble rumble - I woke up this morning to the familiar sound of deisel trucks idling in the street downstairs. The good news is that the petrol strike is over. The bad news is that it will take a while for the gas station tanks to fill up, and the profiteering impulse to slow down.

After Orienteering last Sunday I went looking for gas and found - nothing. As I don't tend to pay much attention to the Greek papers (it's usually the same soap opera for months at a time), and can't bear to watch the news, I neglected to understand the gravity of a trucker's strike. Yup - those long lines of trucks backed up onto the freeway actually did signal something - the end of deliveries, for a while at least, of just about everything. And while we are pretty well stocked with toilet paper, frozen peas, diapers and beer, the gas tank had plunged to reserve. (All those trips back and forth to "our tree" (see post about carnival etc.) have made our weekly gas consumption double, but I'm not used to thinking about filling it up so often.) 

Imagine my surprise when eco-friendly Ado & Chris suddenly find that they are just as dependent on petroleum as the rest of the world! No gas, no travel, at least not anywhere outside the city.

When we lived in Berkeley, Chris started musing about converting our car to biodiesel with a kit that allows your engine to run on used cooking oil. (I think the Ecology Center uses it for it's Recycling trucks, and there were a couple of other folks who had started to promote it as well.) Cute, I thought, and a bit weird, but when gas prices hit $2 a gallon it didn't sound so bad after all. Then we moved here, and didn't have a car for the first year, which was kind of nice in itself, especially when you consider the parking problems in the city. But for the last four years we've watched gas prices go up up up (they're still 20% higher than in the US - even at $4/gallon!) - the average price before the strike last week was 1.07 euros / liter, which translates to about 45 euros to fill the tank on our Toyota. The weekend saw the price shoot up - I saw 1.30 in some places - as the stations took advantage of the get-out-of-town-at-any-cost Saturday morning rush. (So maybe it's a good thing I didn't get the seriousness of it and fill up!) Anyhow, things are suddenly starting to look a little, well, different. And our hippy Berkeley roots are starting to seem a bit, well (dare I say it??) forward thinking...

For now, the pumps are back on again, and as our neighbor gas-guy said this morning, "if people hadn't panicked so much, the supply would have lasted at least a week longer"  (go figure!!). But I am beginning to wonder if  maybe those used-oil-in-your-engine-kits aren't such a bad idea. Just think - a town that smells not of diesel and exhaust fumes, but calamari! Sit in traffic and breath in the ripeness of cheese fritters! Pull up to the back of any friendly taverna and tell 'em to fill it up - and eat lunch while you're waiting!! 'Cause while the lorry drivers may go on strike, the french fry cookers never will...

Mother's Day

We went for Orienteering (that's 'map & compass' in non-outdoors-speak) in the forest outside the city. Chris had a meeting so he wasn't there, but we had fun anyway. After a minor misunderstanding about the starting point (in place of Kostas - the leader - we found a large group of Russians BBQing and drinking Jack Daniels while playing football (note this is 11 am). Although it was tempting to join them, we persevered in our search and finally found the right spot.

Kosta set us all up with maps and compasses and some quick training in how to orient yourself, set the compass, and punch the card with the nifty stapler-type thing to be found at each point.



Then, after some discussion (there has to be discussion!) about who would go where first, we split into 2 groups. There were various degrees of difficulty and we didn't really think the 3.5 km Intermediate route was the best choice for the toddlers, so us Mommies opted instead for the 1 k version (the first 2 points were actually even visible from the base, so we had it pretty easy...). 

Although, the good thing about little people is that if they start wingeing too much about pricklies, you can always put 'em up on your shoulders for a bit. Also they are easily bribed by hike-friendly food such as bananas, crackers and juice - and they can't manage (don't forget to whine as you say this) "are we there yet"- at least not in any recogniseable form! So me & Joji stayed with Daria, Nefeli and Maia. Helen had hurt her leg doing an arabesque out of the shower the other day, so she had honorary toddler-status for the day and came with us.
We found the first two points and then stopped for a brief picnic, when Kosta came down from the base to re-train us on setting the compass (we would have gone off in the wrong direction, so it was a good thing he was keeping an eye out for us...)

Nefeli was in charge of punching the card - she did a great job!


Joji and Maia debate the merits of crackers vs. juice...






Joji practising his orienteering skills on a non-fixed point in the landscape...

Most of the big kids and the non-toddler-age parents went off into the woods, well-armed with compasses and mosquito repellent. They made it halfway through the map before being driven back to base by the downpour. (Those of us in the baby group had spent the rainy season comfortably sheltered under a handy kiosk, eating walnuts and chatting about parenting difficulties.) Now before you begin to think oh, how easy you had it, and those poor kids got soaked, please keep in mind that Joji weighs 12 kg (26 lbs.) and the hip-pack that I had containing snack, water, camera, first aid kit, and extra clothing for him weighed another 7 kg (15 lbs) so my hike up and down the hill, short though it may have been, wasn't exactly a 'lighter than air" experience. More like a trip through the forest with a sand bag tied around my waist and a slightly-squirmy monkey in my sling. (I'm not complaining, just trying to set some perspective...) And although we got under the shelter when it first began to pour, the initial half-hour was a non-stop game of tag with Joji as I tried to keep him under the roof and he ran out to splash in the puddle. Then he was exhausted and fell asleep in my arms, so the last half-hour I was standing and doing the mommy-rock until everyone came back to get their souvenir t-shirts. All this made it into a truly 'Mother-ish' mother's day - wouldn't have traded it for anything!! We ended the day with sunshine, at a taverna with lots of good food, ice cream, and craziness. A great time, lots of fresh air, and good company... 

3 months?! Or almost, since I've written here. Well, we've had a crazy, crazy time of it, with a combination of lots of work and lots of viruses. No time to write, no time to think, even, I feel as though the last few months have whipped by in a never-ending tornado of laundry, toy-management, and homework. But looking back, it seems that we actually have lots of news, and even a few photos to share. So here goes, I'll try a quick synopsis...

1. Little News...

Valentines Day - I cracked the Panayiotidis wine, and it was just as good, maybe better, as remembered. Gotta go back soon, as there are now only - gasp! - 5 bottles left!

Carnaval - Lia dressed up as a skeleton and Joji as a panda (in keeping with the black and white theme) - they were the hit of several parties...

Clean Monday (the first Day of Lent) in March- we went for a picnic and kite-flying. Great day, but Joji was on the verge of Bronchitis 1, so he was a bit cranky and not so happy to have the wind in his face all the time. The rest of us had fun, though.

Lia's Ballet Exam - lots of extra work paid off, and she said all went well. I watched the girls on their final practice day and they really looked great. Results to come back sometime between now and next September (!?)...

Crazy computer happenings - software conflicts (my fault entirely) and RAM failure (not my fault) just as I was starting some new graphic design projects. This was of course concurrent with Joji's week-long bout of Gastro-enteritis (in between Bronchitis 2 and 3) which meant that he was home from school and, therefore, underfoot at all times. He did discover his passion, however, during this period - mopping and sweeping - and we now think he might have a great future as a Sanitation Engineer...

 

2. Big News (here's the juicy part)

See that tree? (actually there's 2 trees and lots of scrub)

That will (hopefully) soon be OUR Tree. Yup - we found a plot of land that is exactly what we want/need, and the last 2 months have largely been taken up with a) deciding to buy it (that took about 3 seconds), and b) trying to buy it. Not an easy process. First, getting the loan (not too hard, but scary), then doing the deal. What seemed like a pretty straightforward transaction has turned into one big bureaucratic mess after another. All this stems from the fact that this piece of land is bordered on 2 sides by "Meadow" and "Forest" - both protected categories. (Do 2 trees make a forest?) Of course, this is part of what makes it so great in the first place, as it means that (theoretically) no one can build right next to us. But in practice, it means that we have to run from one government agency to the next trying to get answers (always different depending on which department you go to) and finish paperwork. Think of having to deal with the DMV, Post Office, and phone company -every day-  and you get the idea...

So we have a couple more weeks to satisfy all the bureaucrats, build a road, and dig for archealogical remains, and then we can close the sale. May 18 is the magic target date. More on this soon - meanwhile here's more photos... (Note the many 'meadow' and 'forest'-like features - grass, bugs, thorny-prickly things, sheepshit and dung beatles. Also 2 wonderful children aaaawwwwww...)